Social Media is not about being Social

Social Media is an odd name for any kind of business medium. It is a misnomer. Created on campuses and made popular by teenagers, wanting to check out and check in with friends, share ideas, lusts, growing pains, disappointments and glory; it has transformed into the most pervasive marketing concept of our time. But "Social" is the wrong word and its roots have nothing to do with its current place in history and its future.

For business, social media is not about being social.

Its not about making friends and sharing personal details. It is in fact an evolution in communication brought about by the Internet and explosive innovation in technology which is transforming the way we do business and market our products and services. It is a pervasive network that adapts to everything and permeates everything.

Clay Shirkly, professor, teacher, writer and philosopher has put it into perspective. He refers to this new evolution of connectivity and communication He calls it  "The largest increase in expressive capability in human history". But as you listen to him its clear that the new media he refers to is not about being social at all.

Social is a word that fits an aspect of what it is, it connect everyone instantly. Now consumers are producers, and every kind of Media has migrated to the Internet; they are neighbours on your desktop and in your pocket. You can view a movie on your smartphone, read the NY times, pay bills, trade in the stock market, book a hotel, see an advertisement, on a screen, in a mag, anywhere all at the same time, and share it with family and colleagues.

Community Collaboration vs Communication will drive business
 
Clay refers to the new media as participatory. I think "participatory" sums it up better than social. We are all participants in a new democracy of communication that are more community based and more collaborative. With it the very core of connection and communication has shifted.  Take a moment to listen to his speech, it can shift your thinking.

 

Media Becomes an Enabler

Clay reminds me of Marshall Mcluhan, but he is more understandable because he is more rational. Mcluhan was an artist and a poet. Many of his ideas and statements were designed to provoke, like  "the future of the future is the present". You have to be a poet to get that one. On the other hand he coined the "Global Village" and the "Medium is the Message" over 50 years ago.  How topical they are now, how true?

Clay will tell us more earthy things that are just as deep, "media is more and more about convening rather than publishing" and "things gets interesting when technology gets boring". This is true, in fact little happens with brand new technology until their is a critical mass. See our blog on the new order. 

For tourism marketers, the follow insights from Clay are worth pondering:

1. Communications is moving to group orientation, its no longer one to many, but many to many, between peer groups and individuals where there are many connections and dialogue is bi-directional.

2. Media has migrated to Net. All Media is beside each other and on your desktop and in your hand.

3. Consumers are publishers. This means a vast expansion in channels and mediators who transpose information relative to their peer group, and even to fragments with in peer groups.

4. The network that is vast and growing exponentially. The size is the square of the of number of nodes. Message will be vastly differentiated and targeted.

5. Media is more about convening communication and participation than delivering the message.

Implications for Tourism Marketing

Tourism destination, tourism operators, hotels and travel marketing companies absolutely will not be able to avoid the this thing we loosely call social media.  I suspect the word Social will be meaningless in the years ahead as all media will have a social aspect. All will be participatory. The result is a collective intelligence and relationships that determines outcomes and markets. All successful Businesses will build face-to-face communities across online, mobile and traditional media.

The message, the media, the messenger and the consumer will have many guises in a landscape where we are all each one of these at sometime, and sometimes simultaneously. Conventional marketing is already changing. The message will not be the driving force as in the past. Participation in a social network is not about crafting the message and presenting it, but about listening and providing useful solutions, knowledge and processes that allow participation. Communications will be less about messages and more about processes, it will be two way rather than one way broadcast. Blasting out youtube video, Facebook messages and Tweets is not the way of the future. 

Branding in the age of Participation

In a fully semantic world of Web 2.0, html5 and applications, messages will be interactive, encouraging participation and collaboration.  Brand advocates are the new messengers and with this shift in marketing the brand will often be controlled by forces outside of market strategy and planning. In the age of participation the Interactive-Brand will be defined  by its users as much as by its owners.

Travel technology firms and tourism marketers will find more channel and devices with which to engage. Technology will integrate and aggregate information and process, repackaging and re-purposing products, services,  information, media and messenger to suit the occasion.  

On-Line Travel Agents (OTAs) are aware of this fragmentation and the opportunities. Because of their size and technical savvy, they may gain ground relative to Brand owners. Hotel and tourism owners will need to be alert to losing  “ownership” of their customers in the emerging interactive-media, and growing channel options. 

With so many others speaking for them, from OTAs to advocates and dis-tractors, the hotel and travel owners must listen and participate in order to be relevant. All travel shopping will be interactive. Traditional ads that are static broadcast just will not win favour in the interactive world.

Related Blogs
What is Social Networking http://irclay.hubpages.com/hub/The-Future-of-Social-Media-for-Hotel-Marketing-Travel-and-Tourism

New Order http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2009/04/neworder.html

Interactive-Brand Blog: http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2010/02/interactivebrand.html

arcRes in New York time http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2011/04/axses-facebook-booking-app-in-new-york.html

Sea more of Clay, its good for the mind.  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=clay+shirky&aq=9&oq=clay+s  

Charts "Where do buyers get information" Source: http://adobe.ly/r4q6Qv 
How National Geographic sold 2,500 Subscriptions in One Day

Contact us to Optimise your Social Marketing for Travel




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arcRes Facebook Posts Engine - Get More Fans

Facebook Posts and Updates are Important, but Tedious to Manage

Posting updates and interesting comments to your Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Wall is one of the most important things you can do to get Fans and engage them. It is also one of the most tedious and time-consuming activities for any business. Many businesses are seeking to outsource this activity, because it is not in their core competence. Now with arcRes new FanPage Posts engine the job of building the Facebook Fan pages and posting content is automated.

Timely and Relevant Facebook Posts For Special Offers

"Posting Special Offers and Packages" are great content for Fan Conversation, status updates and wall posts। They are engaging and shareable content that get mileage. Specials can be scheduled for every festival, holiday and event of the year. They can be targeted to families, couples, singles, by country, special interest groups, etc. The combination is endless. With arcRes Special Offers for Facebook app, Hotels and Tourism suppliers can easily build and display content for any target market and interest group within Facebook.

Special Offer Posts are Advertisements

Facebook, with its huge Market reach and 600,000 loyal followers, has become a major advertising medium for the largest travel companies, like Expedia. Now, even small hotels and travel suppliers can step up their Fan engagement and attract more Fans and bookings with automatic posts managed by arcResBookings tools.

Example of a Wall Post/Facebook Advertisement

With the arcRes option to create ads for specific dates and to change any special at any time; fan page and wall post updates can be current and fresh. With frequent updates and new offers, Fans are more likely to watch for the latest news and offers and return to the page frequently.

arcRes "Special Offers" Builds "Like"
Pages to Entice Fans

The app is also set up to encourage new visitors to "Like the Page" and become a Fan in order to access the information. The Like Page feature is optional. Providing extra value for Fans-only brands provides an incentive for liking the page and building a loyal Fan base।

If specials are shown only to Fans, non-Fans receive the message below and a prompt to LIKE the page (i.e., become a Fan). Non-Fans can still access the page Wall, Photos, etc.

http://arcres.com/facebook/posts-get-fans.cfm

SPECIAL OFFERS FACEBOOK POSTS IS JUST THE START

Social Media Marketing is the new norm, but it only works if it is done correctly. A good Social Media Strategy is to make engaging Fan Page posts often. Good posts get attention and are shared by Fans on their walls, in their news feeds and by active linking and emails. No posts and poor Fan posts means poor Fan engagement and fewer Fans. Fans are not only good for your facebook business, they also help get you indexed by Google.

We know that Fans like coupons and special deals. In Travel, the Special Offers and Travel deals are perhaps the most important shopping criteria. Discounts and packages have led to the skyrocketing success of Online Travel Agents, like Expedia. Price is a market-leader; it is why Google has moved to put rates and costs on local search results for travel.

Special Offers, Coupons, deals, promos and packages are the top search criteria when buying almost anything these day and travel deals are no exception. It is logical to make special offers a big part of your Facebook posting and status update strategy.


But this project is far larger, FanPagePosts beyond Special Offers are a pivotal part of the new AXSES Social Media Marketing plan. Soon we will have fan page post engines for all events, news, reviews, comments and conversation starters.


NEXT - SocialIndexEngine

The project, spearheaded by Kathy-Lynn Ward, COO Of AXSES, called SocialIndexEngine, is a new platform for Social Media that covers Social Media Indexing, Marketing and Maintenance. It includes social media marketing bookmarks, blogs, video, mobiles and SmartphoneTraveller marketing, article marketing as well as social status sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

It is a very comprehensive solution that is right on the curve of where marketing is heading and slightly ahead of where most small hotels and travel companies perceive. It is also an incremental package, so that Hotels and Tourism, as well as businesses of all types, can start at a place and pace that is comfortable for them. From there, they may add more options as they see results and learn how to use the new media to get more direct business.

We will be unfolding this important platform in stages over the next several months. In this article, we are pleased to share our FanPagePost strategy.

RESOURCES
http://fanpageposts.com/

http://socialindexengine.com/

Bookings and Marketing for your Hotel and Tourism Facebook Page: http://facebook.arcres.biz/

Facebook Travel Promo: Win a Free Caribbean Holiday in Barbados

In our ongoing involvement with Facebook as a travel marketing channel, we are running a Sweepstake on our Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia Fan page. The sweepstake offers a free holiday to one winner. All are invited and the rules are simple: anyone interested in winning a Free Caribbean Holiday at Yellow Bird Hotel in Barbados can simply 'like" our Barbados Page and enter the competition.

YouTube - Win a Free Caribbean Holiday: Facebook Promo

Barbados.org Blog | Enter to Win at http://barbados.org/win

The entry deadline is June 30th, at which time a winner is chosen by a random number generator. The winner will get 5 days accommodation, sponsored by Yellow Bird Hotel.

The Sweepstake is advertised on Facebook for the entire month. Kathy-Lynn Ward, COO of AXSES, says, "We are running several ads, all targeted to markets in Canada. Some ads are far better that others and it's quite a job to manage the variables such as demographics, interest, geographic targets, images and text to capture what is working. We are learning a lot about advertising on Facebook, which we will translate into a real advantage for our travel customers."

The objectives of the Campaign are:

1. Generate more Interactive Fans for Barbados.org From a marketer's perspective, a Fan is someone who may follow you on Facebook, is receptive to your news, announcements, events, etc, and who will often tell their friends what you are doing. When you post to your Fan page, the post can be displayed on all followers' walls, which means it can be seen by their friends.  Fans are customers and prospective customers, influencers and interested parties: They represent a high-interest client base that you can keep in contact with. Getting more fans is a high priority in social media marketing.

Running a competition on Facebook is a a good way for any hotel and tourism organization to increase fans and interaction. Competition gets good play within the Facebook community and are spread around by word of mouth. But one has to subscribe to the Facebook guidelines on how to run a competition,  choose a winner, etc.

2. Test Facebook as an advertising media. We are evaluating what works and why. And, most importantly, want does not work. Our intent is to provide consultation to travel campaigns and offer advice and services on how to effectively use Facebook in Travel.

3. Expand AXSES Facebook marketing. We believe we were the first travel company to build a direct booking application for hotels and tourism who wanted to quickly and easily build a Facebook reservations Fan page that allowed fans to see current seasonal rates, specials, photos, brand content and to be able to get an instant quote and book online. We are integrating the arcResBookings application with a full marketing platform for Facebook.

4. Evaluate other social media and marketing channels. In addition to Facebook advertising, the campaign also includes promotion on other social platforms and traditional websites and distribution channels. The performance of these channels vs. Facebook will be evaluated.

5. Make more people aware of the special and unique features of a Barbados Holiday.

The marketing is fully funded by AXSES; Yellow Bird Hotel provides the accommodation.

The Next Step -

Please follow us to learn the results and insights we learn from this campaign. We will be putting this to use by creating packages and a template for marketing hotels and tourism using Facebook and other social media. We are offering consultation, services and technology to help tourism use social media:  see  http://SocialMarketing4Travel.com


Click the follow button below to get updates on this campaign:

Advertising Your Mobile Travel Site on Facebook

This is a follow-up on our previous discussion on Facebook advertising for hotel and tourism mobile marketing (previous study)

The conclusion is discussed here and illustrated in the video below. 

YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YezSUrhg1rQ

Case 2 - Advertising TravelOnTheGo.mobi to Facebook Desktop users

The study tracked advertising of the AXSES site http://TravelOnTheGo.mobi on Facebook. 

TravelOnTheGo.mobi is home to hotels and tourism operators who are using AXSES SmartphoneTraveller.com marketing Services. This is a comprehensive mobile marketing platform that includes listing hotel and travel mobile-optimized sites on our own TravelOnTheGo.Mobi directory, as well as marketing via the DotMobi distribution. Each client gets a 14-page .Mobi website that includes map location, photo galleries, a booking engine and the ability to add specials and packages.

Call to Action on the Landing Page Essential

The specials and packages are very key to the study. In the first study, we advertised Special offers to Facebook users, but travelers had trouble finding the specials. They had to visit each hotel site and, as several suppliers did not have a special deal or a package, we found that they were getting frustrated and quitting early. 

In the second phase, we added specials to the directory. This means that mobile travelers see the specials being offered right on the first page they visited. Facebook desktop users who click the ad see the same.

High Interest from Facebook Fans

The results were tracked using Clicky and showed a marked interest. Visitors stayed on average over 2 minutes on the site and visited several pages. They went directly to the suppliers' offers and even chose to look at options using the booking engine. 

The cost of the ad was on average .19 cents per click (CPC). The campaign resulted in just under 1 million impressions and 330 Clicks to the target websites. The Click-Through Rate (CTR) was 0.037%

 








Comparison with Google AdWords to Mobile Users

By contrast, a campaign on Google's AdWords had an average stay of under 30 seconds and many visited no pages. This was not a split test, as the format and wording of the ad were different. The target was similar, but it was limited to Smartphone users. The ad had good CTR and comparable costs. We expected that by targeting Smartphone users, the length of stay and activity on the site would have been better. In that respect Google Adwords under preformed where Facebook exceeded expectations. We will review and explore this in a following case study.

Conclusion

Facebook clearly attracts attention and gets qualified traffic, (i.e.: consumers who have an interest and stay on the site). We know that this works for traditional websites (see first test) and for mobile websites, even when the mobile site is viewed on a desktop!

Facebook Ads, unlike Google and the Search ads, do not target people who are actually searching for a product or service. This does not mean that the Facebook visitors are not interested in buying, but only that they have not got to your site by searching for your product or service.

The Facebook visitor is interested in your product and service and may well want to buy it, but we suspect that the decision to book will not be immediate in most cases (two of the visitors in this time span actually contacted the hotel directly). 

Most travel shopping is a long process where travelers will visit 25 sites on average.

Converting Travel Shoppers is a complex issue but we know that offering rate guarantees is a vital feature.

Special and packages do entice buyers, but it may be important to also say that it is the best price. Without this, travel shoppers tend to look around and may drop off the radar.

Keeping your hotel in front of the traveler is where Facebook can be very important, especially if you engage them with interesting stories of happenings, offer Best Rates to Fans, and get them to be your Fan.

Fans are good prospects for your service and you can keep in contact with them throughout the Facebook pages.

All research shows that Fans like to stay within the Facebook setting.

Mobile is Significant in Travel Research and Planning

Mobile users are 100% connected most of the time. Those with smartphones are browsing the net to plan shopping and travel (smartphone devices are the fastest-growing sector, accounting for about 25% of all mobile and expected to be near 50% in 2012). Currently about 34% of smartphone users use the device for travel shopping.

For more on this, read our FREE Mobile Travel White Paper at http://arcres.com/smartphonetraveller-whitepaper-download.cfm

Recommendation

Hotels and tourism companies need to be seen on mobile searches and have a mobile-optimized website in order to feature in this market.

Hotels and tourism suppliers should have Fan Pages and encourage guests and potential guests to become Fans. Travel companies should add "Like" buttons to all mobile web pages.

We recommend that Hotels and Tourism operators add Special Rates, quotes and bookings directly to their Fan Pages. 

Fan pages should have all of your rooms, products and the best pictures right on the pages where Fans might make a booking.

Advertising should contain a mix that includes Facebook. We see Facebook as having long-term benefits. For marketing, it has targeting and engagement benefits not available on other platforms.

Keep Tuned in on Insights, Developments and Case Studies

Google AdWords allows you to target your ads to smartphone users, and this is a distinct benefit. We will be looking at this channel of advertising in a future case study - To keep tuned in - please follow us

arcResBookings Fan Pages Builder and Facebook Bookings 

We invite you to a no-obligation Free trial - go to http://facebook.arcres.biz

• TravelOnTheGo.mobi directory listing
• dotMobi publishing to 1000s of directories
• Your hotel special promotions displayed on networks of 100s of travel sites
• iPhone and Android application
• Advertised on the Internet and direct to mobiles/smartphones
• 14-Page mobile-optimized website; get more "Direct Bookings"
•  

Related links 

Advertising Travel with Facebook see
http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2011/04/facebook-travel-ads.html

Google latest study show Smartphone users searching on mobile: " Make sure you can be found via mobile search as consumers regularly use their phones to find and act on information"   see this study at http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com/2011/04/smartphone-user-study-shows-mobile.html

Marketing Mobile Travel with Facebook #2

AXSES launches Hotel and Travel Specials/Packages for Mobile Websites Marketing!

Our previous study of social media hotel marketing for mobile demonstrates that Fan Specials can be an effective part of the marketing mix.

Offering a hotel special to Facebook fans gets a significant response, but we ran into hurdles linking desktop users to a mobile website, TravelOnTheGo.mobi.

The problems revealed with the study #1 were:

1. A mobile display looks a bit lost on a desktop and does not take advantage of the full screen. It was dissonant to desktop users but it did have merit.

2. The landing page for our ads (travelonthego.mobi) did not show specials. The guest was required to visit a hotel site, but they did not know which had specials. For those looking for specials it was a waste of time!

Solution to problem #2 


A. Banners
Add specials to the landing page of the mobile site. We did this in two stages; on the home page we serve up a rotating banner that displays all specials for which we have a Mobile Page. The banner gets attention and travelers can click on a rotation and go directly to the .mobi special page and book it with our hand-held booking engine.

B. Lists

For travelers who want a list of all special, we created a new page that lists all specials. As the offers grow, we will add categories and some other navigation and search features.

With that done, we are still left with the problem #1.

Solution to problem #1

A. Advertise to mobile users only
Only show the advertisement to Facebook fans who are  engaging with their mobiles (about 25%). Unfortunately, Facebook does not offer an option to show ads to mobile user, at this point. Also it will mean that we are restricting the ads to 25% of our potential market. We really want to display the ad to all our market. 75% of our potential fans are not using their mobile when accessing their Fan pages. Many have mobiles and can be interested in getting specials delivered to their smartphones.

B. Create an online landing page
It makes sense to link potential guests to a site that explains what the special holiday advertisements are all about and offers them the special when they next use their smartphone. 

There are a couple of options for the landing page:

1. Link to a Facebook fan page that offers them the explanation and the offer

2. Link to a non-mobile site that does this

We decided to do both and to do a split test to see which performs best. We suspect that the Fan page will win, but there are some constraints on the design and we want to evaluate the Fan page against an optimized landing page.

We also want to know how the new specials-enhanced .mobi site will perform.

Will direct links to the .mobi site that has specials advertised on the two landing pages be valid? We did have fans who “Liked” this original TravelOnTheGo.mobi site so we want to see if the "Likes" will increase now that we have specials and a more apparent action! Also some of the users will be on mobiles, so in both cases, we will link to the mobile site. We will implement this adv. immediately, while we we build the online web pages and do the split test.

Tracking

It is vital that we track these approaches carefully. We use Google analytics extensively on our sites, but this is not real time. For the test, we will also use Clicky analytics. Clicky tells us instantly when a user visits a target page, where they come from, what links they came from and what they did. It measures clicks, downloads and video views at the instant they use it. Clicky is very useful for measuring split tests and immediate results.

The ads will be the same ads we used previously, which were very successful in getting attention and clicks.

Watch out for the results in our next blog!

The result and analysis will be put to good use in building winning strategies for Hotel and Travel Marketing. We have strength in 3 important, related areas:


1. First Facebook Bookings app for direct Hotel and Travel Bookings and Branding
2. Mobile strategy for Direct Hotel Bookings
3. Using Facebook to market Hotels and Travel

We believe social media is going to be one of the most important travel marketing channels. We intend to be a leader in providing know-how and technology for hotels and travel companies. Our focus is building a hotel-owned system for direct marketing and and direct bookings using social media mobile.

Facebook leads in social media and has a mobile platform that complements AXSES arcResbookings.com and AXSES SmartphoneTraveller.com marketing platform.


Keep tuned in for breaking news!

Please Follow me - it will really help us all in marketing travel



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Previous blog  http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2011/04/facebook-travel-ads.html

Realted links 

New York Times: AXSES Facebook app & amp; Mobile Marketing featured in New York Times
http://bit.ly/nytimes-facebook
 

FAN Special for Hotel Mobile Marketing:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smartphonetraveller-Reach-5-billion-mobiles/179886612057757

AXSES SmartphoneTraveller Strategies
http://smartphonetraveller.com 


Put your hotel brand and Bookings On Facebook
http://arcresbookings.com




Video illustrations of this blog:

EXISTING TRAVELONTHEGO.MOBI CLIENTS UPGRADED!

In harmony with the present Special Offer, all existing clients have been upgraded to Specials & Packages on their mobile sites. Please   "Like" us on  SmartPhoneTravellers' Facebook Page if you wish this upgrade to be continuous.

Conclusion see blog http://axses-ianclayton.blogspot.com/2011/05/advertising-your-mobile-travel-site-on.html

 

AXSES FaceBook Booking app in New York Times Today

AXSES is in the New York Times Today.
"Axses Systems Caribbean, a company in Barbados, has helped about 30 small hotels and chains in Barbados and nearby make their reservations available on Facebook since early 2009. Ian Clayton, the chief executive of Axses, said he hoped that by offering reservations directly, while customers were excited by the property, his hotel clients would lose fewer bookings to online travel sites. "

Example:When you click on the Facebook icon on the home page of Rostrevor's website (left bottom corner)  On their WALL (left column), click RESERVATIONS.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rostrevor-Hotel-Barbados/96980647512?sk=app_64886344728

BUSINESS DAY   | April 19, 2011 Itineraries:  Hotels Turn to Social Media to Connect With Travelers By JULIE WEED Hotels are using Facebook and Smartphone apps to take bookings directly from customers, rather than relying on travel Web sites. video on YouTube http://youtu.be/BnC-XebZw78 This is a good time to explore the arcResBookings application for Facebook. We are offering several Facebook specials listed below. Many are with the first 90 days free with no obligation. Our SmartPhonetraveller  marketing and TravelOnTheGo.mobi web sites can also be integrated with FanPages AXSES Facebook  application not only puts bookings right within reach of Facebook fans, it also loads and manages a hotel and tourism brand right into the FanPages.  A description of the hotel tailored to Fans, Special rates for Fans, photo, room info and all seasonal rates are added with a click of a button. Any changes in arcRes (our publishing system) automatically update the facebook pages. Letting your Fans get instant quotes is a great way to engage them. Try it at http://facebook.arcres.biz   450 active monthly users

Marketing Travel with Facebook Ads: #1

With the unprecedented move by Expedia to advertising on Facebook, we ask the question: is Facebook Advertising right for Travel? And the best way to answer that is by doing a test. 

Proof of Concept

Objective: To test if we can get Facebook fans to a landing page and establish the cost per fan.  We are not concerned with the effectiveness of the landing page in this stage. That will be evaluated and optimized later. For this test we worked with Errol Griffith of Freemind Institute who had commissioned AXSES to develop the booking portal for Great Barbados Soccer Classic (GBSC). GBSC is a sport tourism invitational for 2012. Errol has negotiate rates with several hotels to participate and with this he is able to offer a discount to Fans. The test campaign could result in some Fan sales going to his hotel, which would be good business for his group. The  test product is deployed using GBSC,  with a bit of tweaking.

Fan Holiday Special: We set up a series of ads for a Caribbean Fan Holiday Promotion, using Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a test market for the proof of concept. Facebook users respond to special offers, we did not test a non special offer, and don't intend to as all the study indicate offers work.

The first ad targeted the Toronto area exclusively. We aimed to display the ad to males and females age 25 and over, within a 50-mile radius of Toronto. With Facebook demographics, we can target those in relationships, single, married, by interest and by education. As Facebook users also describe their interests, we can target those who have an interest in travel, etc. The demographic and social graphics targeting is very detailed and unique.

Estimated Reach:

26,480 people

• who live in Canada
• who live within 50 miles of Toronto, ON
• age exactly 25 and older
• who like 'i love travel' or 'travel' 

Date	Imp.	Social	Clicks	CTR (%)	Avg. CPC ($)	Avg. CPM ($)	Spent ($)
04/06/2011	151,306	0.0%	33	0.022%	0.77	0.17	25.35
04/05/2011	203,077	0.0%	47	0.023%	0.75	0.17	35.45
Lifetime	558,733	0.0%	127	0.023%	0.76	0.17	96.25

In 2 days, we had half a million impressions, and 127 clicks to the landing page at a total cost of $96.25 USD, or less that a Dollar a click. A pretty good rate for a hot search item, and a lot less than it would cost on search advertising.

So far, a good proof of concept. We consulted our Facebook Guru, Martin Maybrook, who agreed it was a good market, but we needed next to work on the target and the landing page. Martin liked the idea of offering a Facebook Fan Special -"all Fans like the idea that they are special"- but seeing as we only were featuring Barbados, he suggested doing another ad for Barbados only.  In this, we added the Discount. The number of Facebookers who like Barbados is far smaller, so in order to grow the market, we made this ad available to all in Ontario, Canada.

1,960 people

• who live in Canada
• who live in Ontario
• age exactly 25 and older
• who like Barbados

Date	Imp.	Social %	Clicks	CTR (%)	Avg. CPC ($)	Avg. CPM ($)	Spent ($)
04/09/2011	5,629	0.0%	1	0.018%	0.45	0.08	0.45
04/08/2011	25,886	0.0%	22	0.085%	0.57	0.48	12.52
04/07/2011	12,417	0.0%	14	0.113%	0.57	0.64	7.94
Lifetime	43,932	0.0%	37	0.084%	0.57	0.48	20.91

For about $100, we have completed the proof of concept, defined a lively target market and a successful ad and ad copy. We will tweak the ad by running many split tests, where we vary the message and the image. At the same time, we will begin to build a conversion strategy and an effective landing page. These campaigns will give Hotels the option to advertise to a focused  Facebook marketplace with managed campaigns that deliver direct business.

Facebook users like to stay on Facebook. We want to restrict the special only to new fans and we want to build a fan base. So we will run several ads with options for people to 'Like'.

The best strategy is to get users to link to a fan page were they must 'like' the page in order to get the special fan offer; similar to what we are doing with our SmartphoneTraveller marketing. Here the users is invited to click 'Like' to become a Fan.





On clicking 'Like', the page changes to a Fan Offer (on Facebook),  which links to the sign-up page. These are Business to Business ads, which so far do not seem to be performing well on Facebook.

The Business to Consumer Travels ads are, however, doing very well, as noted above.

AXSES arcResBookings.com, our Facebook Hotel and Tourism Application that adds hotels rates, room, photos and brand info onto Facebook pages, now has over 350 active monthly users, and those hotels who offer fan specials are seeing good value in booking from their Facebook pages.

Facebook certainly has come of age for Travel!
What you notice with Facebook advertising is that it is Instant! As soon as the ad is published, you get results. Ads on search engines, by comparison, will take several days to get approved and to get results.



Stay tuned - Next we will optimize the Facebook Holiday Specials - Create target ads for Themes, like romance and adventure, and invite our Facebook clients to participate in targeted and tested campaigns.

Contact us for a campaign designed just for you, or to be included in our next group marketing on Facebook.

links:
Sign-up for FB Bookings http://facebook.arcres.biz
Join AXSES Facebook Hotel & amp; Travel Marketing fbads@axses.com





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NEXT in the series >> http://bit.ly/facebooktravel2mobile